CulTrees project's title allegorically refers to trees that are cultivated in order to yield fruits. This project aims to create a fruitful framework for non-formal educational good practices exchange between coaches of creative workshops and artistic courses. The common ground of collecting and sharing those educational tools, methods and techniques is the ERF key competence Cultural Awareness and Expression. Given the fact that adults learn more effectively when they participate voluntarily in educational programs and that the training methodology should be appealing and utilize their already acquired competences and experiences, CulTrees project will be focused on methodology of art-making. Art is a powerful and very attractive mean for engaging people in learning procedures (especially those who are disconnected from lifelong learning or/and have learning difficulties). It is used in order to develop expressive and creative skills. Dealing with arts creates ideal environments of non-formal and informal learning, where the use and application of already acquired knowledge and skills is often a prerequisite for further development and learning. The main output of CulTrees project will be a set of educational tools, methods and techniques which can be used by trainers and coaches of Adult Education in creative workshops where people develop the cultural awareness and expression competence through art-making (performing arts, media, visual arts, literary arts). Seven cultural organisations with long experience in creative and artistic education, from seven EU countries (Greece, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, Hungary, Lithuania, France) will participate in a 5 days short-term joint staff training event in Larissa/Greece with minimum 3 coaches each. The majority of the participants have already trained in the framework of previous EU projects as peer coaches in creative and artistic workshops for young people and now they will make a step forward by engaging their potential in Adult Education. The implementation methodology of the project consists by a well planed sequence of interrelated activities. Two management meetings, several Skype meetings, a selection procedure of participants and a dynamic preparation process of the educational material to be presented and applied during the training event in Greece, the evaluation of all the activities and the close cooperation for the finalization of the set of tools, the methods and techniques (curriculum), the optional testing activities to end users and the overall assessment, can guarantee the smooth implementation of the project and the production of high-level quality results. The expected impact refers to the expansion and development of educators competences, the design and implementation of effective and innovative provision for enhancing the key competence Cultural Awareness and Expression, which is focused on adults that are disconnected by the educational procedures of lifelong learning or/and face learning difficulties in traditional and formal learning environments. The transnational character of the CulTrees project can guarantee the exploitation of the results at a European level, enhancing the potential of the Adult Education and connecting this sector with the artistic and cultural education.
CulTrees main goal has been a dynamic and add-on contribution to the educational methodology of Key Competence No 8 of the European Reference Framework (ERF): Cultural Awareness and Expression, in the field of Adult Education. Seven organizations from equal number of European countries, members of the International ROOTS&ROUTES network, cooperated from the beginning of the proposal writing time until the completion of the final report, under the coordination of SMouTh, in order to combine their potential in art education and Adult Education in key competences. CulTrees had set some specific goals: 1. The development of a set of training methods and tools that can be used in non-formal education environments, making use of the benefits of peer learning and learning through art making in a variety of artistic expression media (theatre, dance, visual art, literary arts, etc.) 2. The development of the teaching skills of professional art educators who participated in the training activities and the enhancement of their personal professional profile, as well as the level of their organization’s involvement in the field of Adult Education. 3. The development of the adult trainees’ awareness about the cultural diversity in Europe and the need to be maintained. Each organization of the consortium took part in the project’s training activities with 3 people (21 trainers and education professionals) coming from the fields of performing arts education and adult education. Through the cooperation of the whole team, a 5-days training program was created, implemented in July 2018 in Larissa, in collaboration with the Mayoralty of Culture and Science of the Municipality of Larissa and Unesco’s “Learning Cities” network. In this training program, each participant acted both as a trainer and trainee, leading as a trainer the method he/she had prepared to propose to the group, while being trained in all the other methods, in order to be able to evaluate and use them in his/her own activity framework in his/her country. For the dissemination and promotion of this 5-days training activity in Larissa, a 1-minute video teaser was created, published in all social media and local events related to adult education. Also, a greek-language printed flyer in 500 copies has been distributed to stakeholder local organizations, groups and individuals from the Adult Education sector. The promotion of the activity in local level, besides the dissemination of the project, aimed also at the inclusion of a small number of adult trainees in selected workshops of the five-days Larissa training and their function as a reference group in terms of the needs and interests of the end users of CulTrees outcomes (adult learners). This group took also part in every method’s evaluation round that took place at the end of the workshops, offering valuable experience to the CulTrees team. This experience has been imprinted in the collection of all training tools and methods in a shared “CulTrees Methods Descriptions” document. Each participant developed a detailed description of his/her method in a way that it can be applied by the rest of CulTrees trainers. By doing so, each trainer was initially invited to join the project with 1 method, and finally he/she was given access to a collection of 18 methods to apply in training activities in his/her country. The utilization of the whole of CulTrees methods has been implemented through small scale training activities in each participating country during the final 3 months of the project (Oct-Dec 2018).The participating trainers applied the methods they have been trained at from their peers in corresponding target groups in their countries and they had been asked to describe their experience in the project’s final management meeting in Florence in December 2018. CulTrees activities and outcomes had a particularly positive effect in the professional and educational profiles of the participants, as they focused on the opening of their own and their organizations’ professional involvement in Adult Education, in a concrete and sustainable way. The team’s networking activities in local, national and European level have already created the need to spread the knowledge and expertise developed through CulTrees to other organizations and consortiums, while the team is planning future cooperations in order to positively affect the training methodology in Cultural Awareness and Expression in the field of Adult Education in Europe.